The 29-Day Blogging Challenge: G is for Google
I often wonder how I ever lived before the age of Google. I remember trudging down to the public library to complete school assignments, arms laden with a dozen or so books, rifling through index cards for a particular title, and writing everything out by hand. This was in the days before computers – or at least the ubiquitousness of those digital devices – and it seemed to work. No one had really heard of the internet, or email, or search engines at that time, so the main source of information was the library or dusty copies of an encyclopedia I had on my bookshelf.
These days Google has largely replaced all other sources of information. If I want to look up a certain song’s lyrics, or news about Zimbabwe, or locate a particular picture, or creep an old friend, or basically do anything online, I go to Google. It has become a mainstay in my internet life – my default go-to site for just about everything. I use it to search images, maps, news, weather, jokes, quotes, articles, blogs… if I’m curious about it, I can find it on Google.
Looking back at my pre-computer years I wonder how I got by. What if, at 11pm, I suddenly had to find the lyrics to a song on the radio? Or look up a map of a far-off city? What if I just wanted to read the news, but the paper wasn’t due to arrive for another 8 hours? These days those aren’t concerns – with a couple of keystrokes the world is accessible, viewable, updated in real time and fully customizable. As an information hound I feel spoiled, and can’t imagine a world without damn-near everything at my fingertips.
Google processes 1 billion search requests every day. 1 BILLION. In a week, it has processed more requests than there are people on this earth. Amazing. What started out as a simple research project by a couple of grad students has become the internet powerhouse, the default source for any and all information. Could humanity ever go back to the pre-Google era? Does anyone even have a library card anymore? Personally I shudder at the thought, but with over a million servers worldwide, Google is in no risk of shutting down any time soon. And for that I am thankful…
Previous posts: Introducing the 29-Day Blogging Challenge; A is for Anonymity; B is for Busses; C is for Canada; D is for Dogs;E is for Expatriate; F is for Failure